The selection of Jonathan Sexton and Owen Farrell at 10 and 12 is Warren Gatland stacking his chips, throwing them into the middle of the table and then waiting; he has shown his hand, writes Tom Hamilton.

The All Blacks took a 1-0 series lead over the British & Irish Lions by winning the tactical battle. But that could all change in Wellington as both sides try to "second guess" each other, Steve Hansen says.

Discipline and scrum interpretation remain a concern for Lions coach Warren Gatland following a run of penalties in the latter stages of Tuesday's loss to the Highlanders that left prop Kyle Sinckler bemused.

Tour games don't often live in the memory when one reflects on previous British & Irish Lions campaigns, but Ihaia West's try that saw the Blues record a famous victory might well be an exception to the rule.

A breakdown of West's stunning try that gave the Blues victory against the Lions. Toby Marriott/ESPN

Rugby clubs the world over each have their own unique story to tell. But few come better than that of Ponsonby District Rugby Football Club, where the local community is just as important as a record 45 All Blacks.

As anybody who managed a pre-tour bet on Peter O'Mahony leading the Lions in the first Test against the All Blacks staggers out of their bookies we look at previous occasions where the Lions have been led by a stand-in captain.

Jono Gibbes was racked with self-doubt as he prepared the New Zealand Maori to face the 2005 British & Irish Lions. He ended that "euphoric" night having helped make history, and provided inspiration to a new generation.

Maro Itoje was just 19 when he led England to Junior World Championship glory on New Zealand soil. Three years on -- and over his pre-match anxiety -- Itoje is in the frame to start for the British & Irish Lions against the All Blacks.

Former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains bleeds blue and gold such is his affiliation with Otago Rugby. But even he fell out of love with the Highlanders -- until they knuckled down and returned to their roots of sheer, bloody hard work.

The term 'Warrenball' angers Warren Gatland. It has become synonymous with direct, physical rugby, but ask two men who know Gatland best and they say attacking unpredictability is high up in his coaching philosophy's pecking order.

Meads addresses a crowd following the unveiling of his statue in Te Kuiti. Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Kneejerk conclusions will not be drawn from the Lions' struggles against the Provincial Barbarians, but the tourists will have to learn quickly and find some try-scoring form if they are to knock over the All Blacks, according to captain Sam Warburton.

The Lions have been in New Zealand for five days, but under the crisp winter sun, they were officially welcomed to Aotearoa in a ceremony at Waitangi's treaty grounds that will live long in the memory of those lucky enough to witness it.

Former All Blacks prop Craig Dowd has hailed the off-field impact of the Lions tour, saying the thousands of supports who've flocked to New Zealand have created a wonderful feeling up and down the country.

The Lions from the start confronted issues which complicate their existence, and in some cases have persisted to this day. Not the least of their difficulties was raising a half-decent team. The time taken to travel to and from New Zealand in the age before air travel meant that the only players who could accept a tour invitation were those who could afford several months off work.

The 1908 tour of New Zealand is something of an anomaly. The squad was described, correctly, at the time as an Anglo-Welsh team. It played in red shirts with white hoops and attempted to counter the haka with a 'war cry' consisting of the words "Rule Britannia, Cymru am Byth (both repeated three times) hip, hip, hurrah (also repeated three times)".

Some Lions tours are associated with particular players, often captains, in the way that the undefeated 1974 team in South Africa will for ever more be identified with Willie John McBride. With others it is coaches -- Carwyn James in 1971 or Clive Woodward in 2005. But the 1930 party which visited New Zealand is remembered most of all for its manager, the forthright James 'Bim' Baxter.

The team of 1950 were the first modern Lions, recognisable except in the matter of playing 30 matches to the eyes of 2017. They adopted the red shirts which are now as synonymous with them as gold is with Australian rugby and Brazilian football, also late adopters. And they were much more representative than their predecessors of the strength of British and Irish rugby.

No British & Irish Lions party can have departed with less reason to hope, but few have returned to greater acclaim than Ronnie Dawson's 1959 team. They did not win the Test series, but could claim to have got closer to beating New Zealand than any of their predecessors.

Measured purely by results the 1977 British & Irish Lions were among the most successful visitors to New Zealand, winning one Test out of four and coming within minutes of sharing the series. But it certainly was not seen that way at the time. Few if any Lions teams have been quite such a disappointment.

The 1983 Lions tour of New Zealand looks to modern eyes like a marathon, an 18-match expedition including four tests. But to contemporaries, not least the Lions management team of Willie John McBride and coach Jim Telfer, who had been team-mates on the 35-match trip to New Zealand, Australia and Canada in 1966, it looked more like a sprint.

The 1993 British Lions tour to New Zealand, the first for a decade, the last by players who were still officially amateur and the first since 1908 with only three Tests rather than four, comes into the category of 'missed opportunities'. Like the squad who visited Australia four years earlier they went into the final Test with a chance to win the series, but they didn't.

The most recent British & Irish Lions trip to New Zealand is by definition the most vividly remembered, not least by those of us who were lucky enough to be there. Yet it was at the time a venture whose failure, with a comprehensive whitewashing in the tests, seemed to threaten the future of the Lions.